


Amortentia

by AccioInvisibilityCloak



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: F/M, Hogwarts AU, based on an anonymous prompt on tumblr, brief mentions of Hero's birthday, not part of lovely little ficlets, prequel to At Hogsmeade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-02
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-03-04 22:19:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3093149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AccioInvisibilityCloak/pseuds/AccioInvisibilityCloak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a Potions lesson on the most powerful love potion in existence, both Benedick and Beatrice overhear some very interesting, confusing, alarming information about what exactly the other person might have smelt in the potion's enchanted fumes. Written in response to an Anonymous prompt on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Amortentia

Benedick is running late.

Claudio isn’t usually so clumsy, but this morning at breakfast, while Ben was talking Quidditch strategy with Pedro, the Hufflepuff Keeper managed to knock his entire goblet of pumpkin juice off the table, and it wound up spilling all over Benedick. And Ben knows that kid Dogberry meant well trying Scourgify, but the fifth-year boy's efforts just succeed in adding several large scorch marks and even more pumpkin juice to the disaster that is Ben’s robes.

By the time he gets up to his room, cleaned up, changed, and gets back downstairs, Ben knows the others will have gone down to the pitch without him. They’re meant to be having a practice match today with the Hufflepuff team, so Pedro and Leo will be annoyed with Ben for being late, but at least Claudio will be around to blame for it.

Leo Duke is the Flying Master at Hogwarts, so he’s supposed to be entirely impartial, but he was a Gryffindor when he was in school, former Beater, and everyone knows he still roots for the Lions. He’s a bit of an idol to the Gryffindor players, and Ben thinks he’s awesome. Leo and Pedro are desperate for the Gryffindors to win the practice match, something about boosting team morale before their next real match, against Slytherin.

Benedick isn’t averse to winning, but it’s only a practice match, and really, he can’t be bothered stressing about it. He’s just looking forward to flying again.

He loves the rush of it, the wind through his hair, the world dissolving around him, the sharp hairpin turns and the stadium rushing past him as he searches for the Snitch. It’s the best feeling in the world- no matter who he has to share the pitch with.

Ben started out as a Chaser, joining the team in his second year. He and Pedro had been Chasers together, along with Beatrice, back when they still got along. It seems unthinkable now that he and Bea were ever such close friends. Back then, the two of them were inseparable.

Then came fourth year, and the Yule Ball, and suddenly Beatrice wasn’t speaking to him, and so he pulled away from her too, and they determined to hate each other forever. Their Chasing skills floundered, they lost their sync, they spent more time trying to trick each other into the path of an oncoming Bludger than actually throwing the Quaffle- and Gryffindor was suffering for it.

Finally, at the beginning of fifth year, Pedro, caught in the middle and newly Captain, had put his foot down. Something had to change, and their Seeker had just graduated so they needed a new one anyway, and Ben couldn’t even look at Beatrice, much less fly with her. He’d never admit it, even to himself, but it just hurt too much. So he’d volunteered to switch positions.

Since then, he’s gotten used to ignoring the goal posts completely as he keeps his eyes peeled for the Snitch. He’s taller than the average Seeker for sure, but he’s still just light enough, and a fairly skilled flier, and he’s made at least a few great game-ending catches to prove his worth.

Of course, Beatrice the B thinks those catches have gone to his head, and she’s much more likely to point out the many fumbles he’s had- he’d thank her not to keep reminding everyone of that time he let the Slytherin Seeker, Montague, fool him with a Wronski Feint and lost the game for Gryffindor. Montague had got the Snitch, and Ben had earned himself a trip to the hospital wing and endless teasing from a certain Gryffindor Chaser who had no business making fun of other players’ fumbles after that goal she missed against Ravenclaw last game. _What does she know about Quidditch anyway? Just because her cousin teaches flying doesn’t mean she gets to criticize other people’s Seeking, okay?_

Another thing about flying- when he’s in the air, he can forget everything, even what happened fourth year, even the constant fighting and bickering with Beatrice. Being a wizard is cool, but sometimes when he’s on a broom, he wishes he were a bird instead, so he’d never have to land. Or talk to her again.

And so, taking to the skies is the only thing Ben is thinking about as he heads across the grounds, and eventually into the locker room, where the team should be just finishing up with Pedro’s pre-match pep talk. Ben’s head is in the clouds, but the sound of his name from somewhere in the locker room brings him sharply back to earth.

He’s in the middle of changing, slinging on his scarlet Quidditch robes, when he hears Pedro saying something that has nothing to do with the practice match at all.

“Leo, is it actually true? You know, what you were telling me about Beatrice’s crush on Benedick?”

 _…Beatrice’s_ _WHAT?_ No. No, absolutely not. Not possible.

Another voice- Claudio? But he’s supposed to be in the Hufflepuff locker room now, isn’t he? And wait, why can Ben hear Balthazar’s laugh as well? Balth isn’t a Quidditch player for either team, in fact he’s a Ravenclaw. If he came to watch the match, shouldn’t he be outside?

Something is definitely up.

Whatever Claudio was saying before, Ben couldn’t make out, but the last part he hears perfectly.

“I never thought Beatrice would fall for anyone at Hogwarts, especially not Ben. Can you believe it?”

Ben certainly can’t. There is absolutely no way this is true. Beatrice _hates_ him. She can’t even stand to be anywhere near him. She couldn’t possibly like him. No way. But… what if she _does_?

He’s pretty sure the guys are on the other side of this bank of lockers, but it sounds as though they’re moving away, heading out to the pitch. Doing up the last button on his robes, he grabs his old Firebolt and follows them. The rest of the team must be out there already. _Beatrice_ might be out there! What do the guys think they’re doing talking about this here? If she hears them-

“I always thought she hated him, actually,” Leo’s voice is saying. “But Hero says it’s just the opposite. Their Potions class was learning about Amortentia this week, and guess what Beatrice smelled in the potion?”

“No way,” laughs Pedro. “That explains the look on her face when she was standing near the cauldron!”

“That has to mean she loves him, right?” says Leo, laughing along.

Ben, following them cautiously through the maze of lockers towards the exit, stops in his tracks and drops his broom with a clatter. He has a moment of terror that they’ll discover him listening, but miraculously, they don’t seem to have heard.

How can Beatrice, _Beatrice Duke_ , think that _love potion_ smells like _him_? This has to be some kind of joke, right?

“You’re positive she wasn’t just being sarcastic when she said that to Hero, though?” asks Pedro.

“No way. Hero would never have told me about it if it wasn’t serious. And Claudio, she talked to you about it too, right?” says Leo, and Ben, not watching where he’s going, runs right into the bench between the rows of lockers, and barely stifles a yelp of pain for his banged-up shin.

(He’s so busy hopping up and down and trying to stay silent that he completely misses Claudio and Pedro’s stifled laughter. “He’s so buying it, bro,” Claudio whispers to Pedro. “Hook, line, and sinker!” Pedro whispers back, and they high-five.)

“Oh, yeah,” says Claudio loudly. “That’s exactly what Hero said to me, too.”

Benedick can’t believe what he’s hearing. He wouldn’t believe it, except that even _Leo’s_ saying it’s the truth. Leo would never lie about this, right? Right?

He remembers that Potions class, though. Amortentia is kind of creepy, to be honest, but it smells amazing, different to everyone according to what most attracts them. When he’d been by the cauldron that day, he’d smelt English breakfast tea and Firebolt polish and a cool sea breeze and just a hint of fresh-cut mango- but under all that had been something he didn’t recognize, something sugar and spice, sweet and sharp and positively intoxicating.

Is it really possible that out of all the aromas in the world, one of Beatrice’s potion scents had been… him? But that would mean…

Beatrice had definitely been whispering to Hero and laughing about something right after she’d gone up to the cauldron. And then- _oh_. He remembers, she had looked right at him, if only for a moment. Is he imagining this memory? Or had she actually caught his eye and almost _smiled_ at him, right after she had seen and smelled the love potion? 

“Wait, does Benedick know? Has she told him how she feels?” asks Pedro.

Ben’s pretty sure he’d have remembered having _that_ conversation.

“Come on, Pedro, we’re talking about Beatrice here. She’d never tell him the truth!” says Leo.

“Yeah, she’s too embarrassed to say anything, after all those times she made fun of his flying and jinxed him in the halls,” puts in Claud.

That last part is definitely true. Benedick winces at the memory of the most recent Bat-Bogey Hex he’s suffered at her hands.

“Hero says all she does is mope around writing love poetry and listening to old Celestina Warbeck songs until she cries herself to sleep. She usually hates Celestina Warbeck!” says Leo.

“Apparently Ursula and Meg have noticed that her Potions notes from this week have little hearts doodled all over, with ‘B+B’ written in them, too,” Balthazar adds. 

Benedick stifles a laugh. Beatrice drawing hearts on her notes and listening to cheesy love songs and writing poems about him? Seriously?

“Hero’s really worried about her. Beatrice says she would take a Killing Curse before she’d admit to Ben she likes him,” admits Leo. “She’s been really upset lately. Hero’s afraid Beatrice is making herself sick over this, poor kid. We’ve been trying to get her to take some Pepperup Potion, but…”

“So, if Bea won’t tell Ben she likes him, shouldn’t we?” Pedro asks. “He should know about this, right?”

“Are you kidding me?” says Claud incredulously. “If we told him, he would never stop teasing her about it. He’d be even more of a dick to her than he is already, you know he would.”

Ben scoffs to himself. _Me? But_ she’s _the one who’s always being so mean and-_

“You’ve got a point there, bro,” Pedro agrees. “Ben’s one of my best mates, but he can be such an arrogant douche sometimes. It just sucks, you know, because I actually kind of think they’d be really good together. I mean, Beatrice is great. She’s funny, and clever, and one of our best friends, right?”

“Well, yeah. She’s got terrible taste in guys, though,” Claudio laughs.

 _Hey!_ thinks Ben indignantly.

“Trust me, it doesn’t matter what kind of taste in guys she has, Claud. If she likes him, she’s going to keep liking him. I just feel bad for her. I mean, she’s my cousin, I want her to be happy, not pining for some guy who doesn’t even know she cares,” says Leo.

“So we have to tell Benedick!” insists Pedro. “Then at least he’ll know she cares, right?”

“I dunno, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Leo sounds skeptical. “What if he does turn her down, and it breaks her heart?”

“Hero says Beatrice will be heartbroken no matter what,” puts in Claudio. “She’s heartbroken as long as he doesn’t know how she feels, and she won’t tell him, and if he ends up liking her back, she’ll just tease him about it and say she doesn’t care.”

“I’m not surprised she doesn’t want to be honest with him, but Ben’s a good guy, really, even if he can be kind of self-centered,” says Pedro.

“Yeah, true. So then, what do we do? Maybe Beatrice will just get over him,” suggests Claud.

“She might not, though,” Leo points out.

“I still say we should tell Ben, but why don’t we let things run their course for now? Maybe they’ll work things out on their own somehow. I doubt it though. Stubborn idiots,” Pedro says.

“All right, then, if that’s settled, we have some Quidditch to play!” Leo reminds them. “Everyone out to the pitch and get ready for takeoff.”

Ben can hear them heading towards the doors into the pitch. He scrambles to follow them, almost forgetting to grab his broom on the way.

That day, Benedick plays some of the worst Quidditch of his life. All he can think about is what he just overheard. He barely looks for the Snitch; he keeps getting distracted by glints of gold from over near the goal posts, which turn out to be the sun reflecting off Beatrice’s hair. He’s watching her fly towards the Hufflepuff goal to put a Quaffle right past Claudio, wondering if it’s really possible that she likes him, that she’s been so torn up over him. That’s when the Hufflepuff Seeker shoots out from nowhere and seizes the Snitch, which had been hovering just over Ben’s head for quite some time.

***

A few days later, Beatrice is dashing along a corridor on her way down to hopefully grab a bit of breakfast before her Transfiguration class, which she's already definitely late for. She doesn't know how she managed to oversleep, but the professor hates tardy students. She’ll be lucky not to be turned into a desk chair the second she walks in late. Bea is pondering how her alarm could’ve failed when the sound of her name brings her up short.

There's usually no one on this floor of the castle so early, but suddenly Meg is walking up to her, looking excited and a little nervous about something. “Bea,” she whispers, “you should know- Hero and Ursula are talking about you. In there!”

She cocks her head meaningfully towards a classroom door hanging ajar up ahead. “Listen!” Meg whispers, and then she turns and slips inside the room.

Beatrice crouches beside the door, peeking carefully inside; Hero, Ursula and Meg are there, laughing and talking about something. She draws back before they have a chance to spot her.

They're whispering a moment, and then Meg blurts loudly. "What was that you were saying, Hero? About Benedick and Beatrice?"

 _What?_ What could Hero possibly have to say that concerned both her and that dickface? They had been mortal enemies since fourth year, so unless it was to recount their latest lunchtime verbal battle of wits, Bea couldn’t think what this was about.

“Do you remember the other day, Meg, when you and Ursula and the Slytherins had double Potions with the Gryffindors, and you were brewing Amortentia?” Hero asks with an air of someone about to reveal an important secret.

“Oh, yeah, that stuff was orgasmic!” says Meg. “Did you smell the example potion that Professor Hecate showed us? I could smell wet nail polish and flowers and rain and vanilla and- well, Robbie!“

“But the important thing is what Benedick smelled,” says Ursula. “Anyway, Hero, are you _sure_ you heard this right?”

“Of course I did, I heard it from Claudio and Pedro, and they know Ben better than anyone. Claud told me that Pedro told him that Ben said there was something in the Amortentia vapors that reminded him… of _Beatrice!_ ” She pronounces her cousin’s name with a triumphant flourish.

Out in the hall, Beatrice’s jaw drops.

Benedick thinks love potion smells like _her_? That is so _creepy_. Beatrice is thoroughly disgusted. Oh my God, she can’t be hearing this right now.

“Aww, that’s so sweet,” says Meg, and Beatrice makes a face. “I feel bad for him, you know? He seems really upset. I bumped into him in the owlery the other day and I’m pretty sure he’d been crying, it was really weird.”

“I know,” says Hero sadly. “Claudio says he’s absolutely inconsolable. He just comes back from classes and mopes around in his dorm all day. He doesn’t sleep, he never comes to the Great Hall for meals anymore.”

“And there’s all that poetry,” puts in Ursula, and Meg bursts into giggles.

(Out in the hall, Beatrice has also dissolved into silent giggles. The image of Benedick curled up sadly in his four-poster with the scarlet curtains drawn so no one will catch him with a quill and a parchment covered in love poems is entirely too much for her to picture without laughing. What a weirdo. Who even does that?)

“Poetry? Really?” Meg asks.

“Well, you can’t blame him for writing about his feelings. Isn’t it obvious? The moping, the Amortentia, it can only mean one thing,” says Hero. “Benedick is in love with Beatrice!”

Beatrice, still crouched outside the door, stops laughing. She comes very close to falling over and knocking the door open. In love? With _her_?

 She doesn’t know what to think right now. It doesn’t make sense. He’s supposed to hate her, like she hates him! _Oh my god_ , she thinks. This completely explains how weirdly nice he’s being to her lately. Like last Saturday night when all their friends snuck to the Room of Requirement for a pizza party, and he’d asked her about her day and complemented her flying in the last Quidditch match. It’s all because- no. Impossible.

She remembers the Potions lesson well. It was right after the Charms class where she accidentally-on-purpose turned one of Ben’s eyebrows orange and Professor Clearwater gave her extra credit on the condition she turned it back again. Ben had been furious. That was a good day.

But had he really smelled her in the Amortentia vapors? Why on earth would he have? Why couldn’t he smell normal things like the Forbidden Forest after a storm or the Great Hall before a feast or peppermints or something?

She, for example, had smelled melting chocolate, the wooden handle of her first broomstick, the sweet aroma of the roses that grew in her aunties’ yard, and the must of old books like her favorite copy of Frankenstein- and underneath all that, there was another appealing scent, something fresh and clean and bright that she couldn’t quite pinpoint. It was oddly comforting, a warm blanket of a scent that she wanted to wrap herself in, and she wishes she knew what it was.

The girls are still talking. She forces herself to start paying attention again.

She doesn’t like what she’s hearing, not one bit. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Benedick, one of the hottest guys at Hogwarts? Ugh, Hero can’t be serious about that. And the way she talks about him like he’s all charming and sweet and pitiable, it’s disgusting. And all that stuff about her, Beatrice, being stubborn and judgmental and rude? How could they say that? She is not stubborn. Can she help it if she has good taste and right opinions?

None of this makes any sense. Beatrice is stewing in her anger and confusion when suddenly she hears the girls heading for the door. She dives into the next open classroom just in time to avoid getting caught listening.

Peering through the classroom window, Bea watches her friends leave. Meg looks back and winks at her conspiratorially. Ridiculous. This entire thing is ridiculous! And Benedick, liking her? She shudders.

How did everything get so weird? She wonders as she heads off towards Transfiguration.

She spends the entire class period trying not to think about Amortentia.

***

Two weeks later, the disaster that is Hero’s sixteenth birthday leaves everything about Beatrice’s world turned upside down.

Claudio ruins Hero’s birthday, vilifies her in front of everyone, breaks her heart while the party guests stare, and Pedro’s gone, and now Beatrice is holding Hero as she cries and Balthazar and Ursula stay to help and to Beatrice’s numb surprise, so does Benedick.

Bea helps Hero calm down and Balth and Ursula distract her and keep her company and Ben is just there, and Beatrice is strangely glad he stayed.

And Ursula and Balthazar go back to their dorms, and Hero crawls into a little bed the Room of Requirement supplies and falls asleep.

And then it comes time for Ben to leave too, and Bea suddenly doesn’t want him to. She does something she could never have thought she’d do, and pulls him into a hug.

“Thank you,” she murmurs into his shoulder with a shuddering gasp, and recognizes the warm, clean, calming scent of him like a lost memory. He smells like coming home.

Benedick hugs her back, and pressed so close, he catches the scent of her hair, sweet and sharp and somehow so familiar.

They stand there in the darkening Room of Requirement for a long moment, holding each other, breathing each other in, and they’d never admit it, but it’s a thousand times better than any love potion in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> My prompt was "please can you write a bea/ben au where they're at hogwarts and they have a lesson about amortentia and it smells like each other?" Yes, Anon, yes I can, and thank you for making me feel a little creepy for how much time I had to spend pondering what Ben and Bea would smell like to each other. Smells are super hard to describe, but it was an interesting challenge. I hope you don't mind that the actual potions class was only referenced by the characters. I realized it was actually the perfect piece of information to make the Love Gods' fake conversations more real to Ben and Bea. The Love Gods took a lucky guess there. I hope the overhearing scenes in this fic weren't too boring or OOC. I tried! Also, like in my other Hogwarts AU fic, this is post-Voldemort Wars, so there's a lot more inter-house unity, and the tables in the Great Hall aren't house-separated, the Quidditch teams work together more, etc. This is set a few months before "At Hogsmeade", at the beginning of Bea and Ben's seventh year. I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Please do not copy/duplicate this work.


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